Online Discussion Blogs with Visual Representations: Designing Prompts that Promote Pre-Service Elementary Teachers’ Mathematics Learning

Virtual Paper ID: 55773
  1. aaa
    Anne Marie S. Marshall
    Berry College
  2. Kadian M. Callahan
    Kennesaw State University

Abstract: This paper describes an examination of pre-service elementary school teachers’ (PSTs’) online discussion blog posts to determine the extent to which a blog prompt utilizing PST-created visual representations fostered mathematics learning. This study contributes to the limited body of research on how online discussion blogs (DBs) can be used effectively as a digital learning tool. The two major findings include acknowledgement that DB-based tasks can: (a) promote PSTs’ critical analyses of their peers’ mathematical thinking and (b) extend learning from in-class tasks to online collaboration. Because research findings show that this population often has limited experiences with and may be intimidated by participating in mathematical discussions (Jansen, 2009), these findings offer evidence that online discussion blog prompts, deliberately designed to enable an interactive socially-constructivist learning experience, can promote productive mathematics learning in a teacher education program.

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